A.M. Scott's Blog, page 9
December 28, 2019
2019 according to The Amazing Sleeping Man
Wow, what a year! I can not believe we were able to cram two-months of activities into twelve months. Yep, pretty slow year here, not sure where it went but I know it was not adrenaline-filled.
Snowboarding/skiing got off to a slow start, then some big storms rolled in and it was powder nirvana. We also took advantage of Vail Resorts Military EPIC Pass for unlimited skiing at any Vail-owned property. So we hit places in Utah and Colorado. Anne Marie’s brother Jerome met us in Colorado, proving once again he’s a much better snow surfer than either of us. The EPIC pass was indeed epic. We did not buy the tickets this year due to the addition to our family.
In April one of Anne Marie’s friends had a German Shepherd Dog (GSD) puppy she could not keep. So for some reason I am still not clear on, we ended up with a puppy. Anne Marie drove to Oregon to pick it up, visiting her sister Julia on the way. Turns out the puppy is a long-haired GSD and we’ll be her fourth (and final) home. My new hobbies include: throwing the stick, throwing the ball, playing tug a rope, going to the dog park, and unclogging the vacuum cleaner. I can strip the Hoover down and remove all of the dog fur from the motor, brushes and tube faster than I can field strip an M-1 rifle.
Our new 65 lb fur missile is named Zoe. We named her after Zoe in the TV series “Firefly.” They are both black, female, and the TV character is a warrior—our dog, not so much. She is pretty much a chicken. But technically, she is still a puppy: she’ll be one on New Year’s Day. Anne Marie posts lots of pictures of Zoe on Instagram @amscottwrites
I am down to my last 4 months working for Smokey Bear. I am looking for something a little closer to home. The fifty-six mile each-way drive isn’t bad in summer, but in the winter it’s dark to Missoula and back home. I swear every large critter of undetermined origin is trying to jump out of nowhere and kill me. Maybe if I did not drive on the twisty mountain road it would be different, but where is the fun in that?
Anne Marie continues her prolific book writing. She published book six of her science fiction series this fall. She also got a short story selected for a big anthology (you know, a big book of stories by various authors—I had to look it up, too). Her story ended up being the first one in the anthology. You can find her books under the name AM Scott or at amscottwrites.com. She hopes to finally break even in 2020.
She also went to a writing/marketing conference in Las Vegas (the Nevada one, not the New Mexico one) with her sister Julia Huni, who also writes science fiction. They had a good time and made a lot of contacts. The best part was I did not have to make an emergency trip to bail them out of jail.
Last spring, Anne Marie revisited her college years. She performed in a local theater show called “Disaster! A 1970’s Movie… Musical!” It was a spoof of all of the 1970’s disaster movies. It was pretty funny. She had a blast and met lots of, let’s say interesting, people. They are all very talented. It is amazing how much talent there is in this little valley.
We didn’t do much hiking this summer—see above about new puppy and long commute. We did get a few short ones in this fall and Zoe seems to really like it. We also did a lot of obedience training with the professionals at Wind River Tails and Trails. Zoe has become less fearful of dogs and likes people, so she can run free at the dog park.
Fortunately, Montana was pretty disaster-free this year. Anne Marie only did one Team Rubicon operation; a fire mitigation project in NW Montana for another veteran organization. She was happy to sleep in a tent for a few nights since she didn’t do any backpacking trail maintenance trips this year. She did get one quick backpacking trip with friends, also in NW Montana.
In October, a good friend of mine from high school, college, and the Air Force (we both took the AF test at the same time and ended up being stationed only about 80 miles apart) came to visit. We introduced him to a true Montana fall: burning slash piles on rainy days and cutting down big trees. He mentioned renting a chainsaw and cutting trees in his subdivision, so we decided to up his skill level. I got out my professional chainsaw. And by professional I am not talking about some cheap marketing-ploy chainsaw used to prune Magnolia trees. My chainsaw was a rebuilt one bought from a real lumberjack. It is the same type we used to fight fires. Think of this thing as a clan of angry beavers set out for revenge against trees. It will cut through boulders and take a leg off in five seconds. Anyway, after a quick lesson by Anne Marie (she is a Team Rubicon saw instructor) he was dropping seventy-five foot plus trees. He lived and my saw still works, so I guess we can chalk Anne’s instruction up as a success.
So far, it’s been a disappointing ski season here. Opening day was a couple of weeks later than normal and we’ve gotten little snow since then. We normally ski on Christmas (Anne Marie sings for the Christmas Eve service) but this year there just isn’t enough snow to bother going.
We’re hoping for more snow, so we can use our ski passes and all the prepaid doggy daycare days. We hope you get the weather, fun and jobs you want in 2020!
October 30, 2019
The Real Clockers
Did you know clock maintainers actually exist? Yes, right here on Old Earth, right now, there are people working every day, all day, all year (24/7/365 in military terms) around the world to maintain clo
cks. Specifically, atomic clocks.
Why, you ask? Because timing really is everything. For example, millions of online bank and credit card transactions rely on precision timing. And timing is the reason the Global Positioning System—GPS—is so accurate.
I know this, because my first—and favorite—job in the US Air Force was maintaining GPS. I was assigned to the 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS) way back in 1989, when there were a whole five satellites orbiting Earth. Four of those were the original experimental satellites. When I left for my next assignment in 1993, the GPS constellation was fully operational (twenty-four satellites) and had become the biggest free utility in the world.
The concept behind GPS is fairly easy to understand. The details? Well, they’re still not hard, but they might take a little study. Rather than explain it all, I’ll link some tutorials below. But you don’t have to know how GPS works to understand this story or any of my novels!
The key to GPS is timing. Each satellite contains several atomic clocks—only one is used at a time—and all those clocks are maintained to stay within nanoseconds of the master control clock at the Master Control Station (MCS) at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. The GPS master clock is maintained within ten nanoseconds of the Coordinated Universal Time Scale in Boulder, Colorado. And the UTC/NIST is kept in sync with the worldwide time standard in Greenwich, England. All those clocks require maintenance by humans, because they tend to drift, especially as they age.
Yes, they all need real Clockers!
GPS is maintained by a crew of seven people 24/7/365, plus a whole bunch more technical, training, and administrative folks, both military and civilians, at the MCS and around the world. The on-duty GPS crew consists of two people who contact the satellites and check the basic state of health; a single person maintaining contact with the ground stations around the world used to contact the satellites; a person with additional training on satellite systems, and there’s a crew commander and a deputy. Finally, there’s a navigation officer, the person who makes sure those satellite clocks stay in sync with the MCS standard. Also know as “the Nav.” What I call the Clocker!
Back in the day, I did three of the six crew positions: satellite operator, satellite vehicle officer, and crew commander. The most fun and challenging was the satellite vehicle officer; I actually got to use my engineering degree. After a stint on crew, I became the training officer for the vehicle officer position, and ended up rewriting the entire training plan. I also taught the first class after the revisions; a class of three whole people.
After four years at 2 SOPS, I moved to my next military assignment. Many of the people I worked with got out of the military and continued working GPS as system experts—I heard stories every now and then as I continued my career.
Fast forward to a little over a year ago. Oddly enough, one of my satellite vehicle trainees way back then is also the brother-in-law of The Amazing Sleeping Man’s best friend. How’s that for a convoluted relationship? I’ll call him MG. MG was in that first class of satellite vehicle officers I taught. Because of the personal connection, I knew more about MG’s career than most of the 2 SOPS alumni.
MG’s sister read my books and told MG about them, and he read them. MG kept in touch with some of his GPS friends, GH and BW, and told them about my books. GH was also in my class; I remember all of them as super-smart awesome people. GH and BW read my novels and got in touch with me. GH and BW both work as technical specialists on the GPS navigation payload. BW works on the entire navigation payload, while GH works on the timing part specifically.
BW told me he’s decided to call GH “Clocker” no matter how rude it may be!
Fortunately, GH thought it was funny, since it’s only rude in my universe. Even better, BW and GH decided to name one of their time calculation software tools ^timespace^! How awesome is that?
So, next time you’re driving somewhere unfamiliar using GPS-dependent mapping software, think kind thoughts about all the Clockers around the world, working hard, so your freedom doesn’t slip away a nanosecond at a time.
Do you have a similar story? Tell me about it at am@amscottwrites.com. Maybe I’ll put it on my blog if you want!
References:
GPS tutorials: https://www.gps.gov/multimedia/poster/
http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=55
https://plus.maths.org/content/recognising-place-gps-has-our-lives
GPS command & Control: https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/control/
NIST: https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-services
October 25, 2019
Operation Warrior Sanctuary
Earlier this year, a wonderful thing happened. A generous soul, who wishes to remain anonymous, donated a Montana land lease with a campground and many buildings called Camp Ponderosa, to the Northwest Montana Veteran’s Food Pantry and Standdown organization. It’s located in the beautiful Swan Valley, between Seeley Lake and Condon, and near Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park. The new owners want to make this site into a retreat/conference destination for veteran organizations and other non-profits to use at a minimal cost. But before it can open, it needs some work.
Specifically, fire mitigation. Camp Ponderosa is also an evacuation site for the surrounding community because there is only one way, a two-lane highway, in and out of the Swan Valley. If it’s blocked by fire, residents and visitors need a safety zone. It’s also a potential site for firefighters to camp at and the Red Cross to use as a shelter. It has large buildings and a commercial kitchen but they need some major repairs. There are a lot of people and organizations working really hard to get everything up and running!
Since Team Rubicon excels at fire mitigation, we teamed up with the Veteran’s Food Pantry to run an operation and a sawyer training class. They provided the site and the food, we provided the people and saws. I drove up to the site on Thursday afternoon, after picking up some additional gear at our storage site and one of our Regional Chainsaw Instructors, flying in from NW Washington State. Chuck is a funny and humble soul, and his company made the two-hour drive go by quickly. He’s also an expert sawyer (one of those folks who climbs trees with chainsaws!) and I look forward to learning more from him in the future. Arriving on-site, I set up my tent–I prefer to sleep out when I can–greeted all my old Team Rubicon friends and met many new friends. We had members from eight states (twenty-two or so, plus our mascot, TR Teddy) with six taking the sawyer class, the rest here to work the operation.
On Friday, we split into teams, with Chuck, Nina and myself as Strike Team Leaders, and began the mitigation operation. My day did not get off to an auspicious start–my team had a ton of trouble starting our saw. But we persevered, got the saw to run, and got some brush cleared. When you’re using a chainsaw–a fabulous tool with the potential to cause a lot of damage–getting just a few things done is great day.
The next day, Nina and I taught the classroom portion of the Sawyer 1 class. No matter how experienced you may be with a chainsaw, Team Rubicon requires everyone to go through their training classes. Using a saw in on a disaster ground is very different from using a saw in a ‘clean’ environment, and many Team Rubicon members have never picked up a chainsaw before, so consistent training is key. We had a small but attentive class and I really enjoyed working with all of them. While we were teaching, the rest of the Team Rubicon volunteers continued working on fire mitigation and a few other projects. In addition, Home Depot donated and delivered all the materials needed to create a beautiful fire pit, some replacement doors and windows, and some paint.
On Sunday, our students got to use the skills they’d just learned. Again, we may not have gotten a lot done, but everyone got to put their knowledge into practice. And Team Rubicon has more sawyers who can safely work on disaster grounds, removing woody debris for survivors, helping them recover.
As usual, I had a great time. I got to reconnect with my old friends and meet a bunch of new friends, shared wonderful meals, and slept out under the stars of lovely NW Montana. I look forward to the next operation!
Team Rubicon is still helping survivors in the Bahamas and elsewhere. If you can spare a few credits, please go to https://teamrubiconusa.org/ Thanks!
October 22, 2019
Cover Reveal Lightwave: Command Decision, Folding Space Series 6.0!
Here it is, in all its’ beautiful glory, Lightwave: Command Decision, Folding Space Series 6.0! The wonderful folks at Deranged Doctor Design did a fabulous job! This is my favorite cover so far!
October 21, 2019
Guest Post
One of the other wonderful authors in The Expanding Universe 5 anthology, Lawrence Schoen, has an amazing blog called Eating Authors. He asks each author a deceptively easy question: “What’s your most memorable meal?” Check out my answer here. (Notice the new pic with Zoe!)
Then go read the rest–he’s interviewed a lot of fabulous and famous authors!
Oh, and The Expanding Universe 5 is on sale right now!!! Get your copy today!
September 16, 2019
The Expanding Universe 5 is LIVE!
Happy Book Birthday to The Expanding Universe 5!
Available on Amazon in e-book and paperback–free in Kindle Unlimited! My story, Lightwave: Jericho Colony Rescue, is the first story! I’m so honored–so many great writers in this anthology.
Twenty-three never-before-published science fiction stories by award-winning & bestselling authors. One remarkable collection.
With a foreword by Kevin J. Anderson, this collection has something for every science fiction fan.
Aliens of the mind, blasters in space, an enigma, and so much more. A massive collection of brand-new, never-before-published stories from past and future masters of sci-fi. Dive in and disappear.
More than 700 action-packed pages of never-a-dull-moment entertainment! When you discover we’re not alone in the universe, will you be prepared? Grab your copy of The Expanding Universe Volume 5 and immerse yourself in new worlds, with new friends.
Get it today.
July 9, 2019
All about Disaster! a 70’s Movie–Musical!
Hey all, I’m a guest on Delilah Devlin’s blog today. Check out my post about my experience in musical theater and take a look around her site!
July 2, 2019
Lightwave: Circini Search is live!
It’s my book birthday! Lightwave: Circini Search is live at Amazon, B&N Nook and several others now, and should be at Kobo and all the others within the next day or so!
Folding Space Series 5.0https://books2read.com/u/3yrq7V
May 30, 2019
April 26, 2019
A wild trek for the last wild shots
Last Saturday, Seb and I hiked up to the Fisher research site we’ve been caring for to dismantle it and bring back all the equipment. It was pleasantly warm–the mid-50s F–but rainy, so we were in rain pants and jackets most of the way. There was still quite a bit of snow on the trail, so it was a slow, slippery trek.
Blodgett Creek and the boulder fieldIf you recall from the other posts, the site is only 2.5 miles up Blodgett Canyon, but then you have to cross Blodgett Creek. In the past, that hasn’t been a problem–just put on snowshoes and cross. But now? Blodgett Creek is roaring with high water. There was no way we were crossing it. Although we did see a couple of teenagers cross later on a rickety log jam. Thanks, but I’d rather work a little harder and not drown.
Overlooking our trekAnd work hard we did. We hiked up to the pack bridge at just over 3 miles; a relatively easy hike, even with all the snow. But then we bushwacked our way back down the other side. First, we pushed through a large area of small diameter pines and willows. Then we crossed a huge boulder field–they were wet and slippery–so treacherous. Then another bushwacking, with thigh-high snow drifts, and finally, we found the site.
Misty Blodgett Canyon WallWe took down the camera and bait station and cleaned up all the other tools. As you can see below, the station didn’t see any Fishers, but we did catch a wolf! And me, happy to be alive.
The trek back wasn’t any easier, but at least we knew approximately where we were going and what to avoid. All in all, it was a long tough hike, but the company was great and I’m glad we did it. If they hold the project again, I’ll gladly volunteer to organize a station.
Lower left corner
Lower left corner
Lower left corner
Happy to be alive!
